I'm trying to decide whether to stick with Hearthstone, and try to get to legend, or just quit entirely. To that end, I would like to know whether there are many of you with a similar experience to mine.
I started playing in March 2015. I'm more or less a F2P player, though I occasionally spend a little. I can't justify dropping hundreds of dollars on this game as some might. Nonetheless I've amassed a decent collection by grinding for adventurers and packs by completing quests and running the arena.
Several times now, I've gotten to rank 5 on the standard ladder. My highest rank is 4, which I've reached 3 times. Always, by the time I get to rank 5, there is not enough time left in the season to think about getting to legend. My progress is simply too slow, and I have a job and a life to manage that preclude spending all my time on the game.
Climbing the ladder is always a long, grinding struggle. I might have some modest luck and spring up a few ranks quickly, only immediately to become caught in a spiral of losing that destroys most of my progress. This season, that experience has only differed at all due to the new floors established at ranks 15 and 10. My choice of deck seems to make little difference. I've tried jade shaman, jade druid, dragon priest, dragon warrior, tempo mage, discardlock, all with pretty much the same result. This season, I was desperate enough to try pirate warrior, and,, after some initial success, I found that while the pace of the climb and decent is faster, the end result is no different. I've switched to jade druid, and I've been stuck at rank 9 for a week, slowly going nowhere. I can play for hours only to lose as many stars as I gain.
My experience in arena is comparable. Out of hundreds of runs, I've gotten to 12 wins only twice. My lifetime average wins, since I've been tracking my stats, is 3.6 per run, although over the past six months it's more like 4.2. Any sense of improvement is fleeting. The payoffs for my average run make me question whether it was worth risking the 150g entry fee.
Bottom line: I'm getting no satisfaction out of the game. I feel like I'm not making progress toward legend. I'm not increasing my wins in arena anymore. I feel like I'm stagnating, and my play isn't improving. With 2 years invested already, is it realistic to think that I can still improve and achieve more, or should I just give up?
stop playing ladder, try fun decks in casual. If you find joy in the game again, then keep playing, if not, then quit. A lot of use who have been around for a few years have gone through what you are going through now. I generally only play fun/wacky decks on ladder purely for working towards golden portraits. Rank 5 rewards would be great, but I don't care enough about it to grind it out against shamans 24/7 since Karazhan to be all that concerned.
Only 0.5 percent of the player can reach Legend, just saying. This game has several million players but only few thousand can reach Legend each month. Having said that, I think you should play 1 deck , to really expertise it, understand it inside out so you can make the right decisions when it matter. The small improvement is the different between a rank 5 and a Legend player. I suggest a good control deck, because aggro and midrange in general are more draw dependent and less comeback mechanics. We should wait for the next expansion next month, everything fresh, no more cancer Shaman and renodeck and hopefully lots of good control mechanics to combat aggro and jade.
I was stuck at rank 8 trying to make c'thun druid and discardlock viable. Im trying to get to rank 5 but i dont want to use pirate warrior or shaman. Last season i reached rank 7 with c'thun druid but i want rank 5. It is very hard so now im just playing for fun rn at rank 9.
Based on the information you have provided it sounds like you still have a decent amount of room to improve. Instead of focusing on your end goal (legend) you should focus on improving your winrate. The easiest way to do that is to watch streamers and pros play and analyze each and every difference between how they play and how you play. Even if you think that you play almost exactly like them, just remember that one play out of 10 games, just one play in 10 whole games, that caused them to win and you to lose is the difference between a 65% winrate (easy legend) and a 55% winrate (going almost nowhere). Here's a fun little chart that shows just how big of a difference a small increase in winrate can have:
First of all your either f2p or not, no Mabey or sort of about it. Second reaching legend is not even as great an accomplishment as it seems. Anyone can aggro deck grind to legend. Just keep playing to have fun.
I'm trying to decide whether to stick with Hearthstone, and try to get to legend, or just quit entirely. To that end, I would like to know whether there are many of you with a similar experience to mine.
I started playing in March 2015. I'm more or less a F2P player, though I occasionally spend a little. I can't justify dropping hundreds of dollars on this game as some might. Nonetheless I've amassed a decent collection by grinding for adventurers and packs by completing quests and running the arena.
Several times now, I've gotten to rank 5 on the standard ladder. My highest rank is 4, which I've reached 3 times. Always, by the time I get to rank 5, there is not enough time left in the season to think about getting to legend. My progress is simply too slow, and I have a job and a life to manage that preclude spending all my time on the game.
Climbing the ladder is always a long, grinding struggle. I might have some modest luck and spring up a few ranks quickly, only immediately to become caught in a spiral of losing that destroys most of my progress. This season, that experience has only differed at all due to the new floors established at ranks 15 and 10. My choice of deck seems to make little difference. I've tried jade shaman, jade druid, dragon priest, dragon warrior, tempo mage, discardlock, all with pretty much the same result. This season, I was desperate enough to try pirate warrior, and,, after some initial success, I found that while the pace of the climb and decent is faster, the end result is no different. I've switched to jade druid, and I've been stuck at rank 9 for a week, slowly going nowhere. I can play for hours only to lose as many stars as I gain.
My experience in arena is comparable. Out of hundreds of runs, I've gotten to 12 wins only twice. My lifetime average wins, since I've been tracking my stats, is 3.6 per run, although over the past six months it's more like 4.2. Any sense of improvement is fleeting. The payoffs for my average run make me question whether it was worth risking the 150g entry fee.
Bottom line: I'm getting no satisfaction out of the game. I feel like I'm not making progress toward legend. I'm not increasing my wins in arena anymore. I feel like I'm stagnating, and my play isn't improving. With 2 years invested already, is it realistic to think that I can still improve and achieve more, or should I just give up?
Wow, same story as mine. I started playing a month after you, reached max rank of 4 (though i usually grind up to 10 and stop giving a fuck). Also pretty shabby in arena, but i do realize it's a better way for getting packs + it's much better than constructed. I too have a job, wife and a kid and i need to be realistic, i can't grind six hours per day to get a card back, same as you, you wouldn't want to screw your life over a game. So i found another goal to make me happy: all golden heroes. It makes me play classes i normally wouldn't and makes me a better player overall. And also, stop buying packs and just play arena, with 2 years experience in the game, you should progress very quick. I just started to play it more seriously, draft my own, and i always get m money back + pack at least.
I appreciate the advice, but I've heard this a lot, and my impression is that while watching steamers can be entertaining, as an educational tool, it's overrated, and at best has diminishing returns. Very few of the steamers are good teachers. I rarely hear them convey their thinking behind a play, or generalize it into any practical, repeatable strategy. Trump is probably the best at this but most of his videos don't go beyond introductory material. Great for beginners, but for someone like me whose trying to find that 10% improvement, just frustrating.
I can't speak to Legend, because I've only ever make it to Rank 5 and then simply run out of motivation to climb any higher. From my little experience and listening to others, it is mostly a serious grind.
As for the Arena, progress is always possible ... you just have to [over]analyze everything. There's a lot of luck in the Arena, but there's also an immense amount of skill in gauging tempo, reading your opponents plays/hand, understanding your deck's win condition, and knowing when to go face vs trade. Watching top streamers and analyzing their play can help with all of those skills.
Also concerning Arena, I recommend using a 2nd account. It's fairly easy to keep up with quests, and since you won't care about packs/cards on that account, every gain can be cycled back into the Arena.
Ultimately, though, if you're really getting no satisfaction out of the game, and if improving your play won't result in more satisfaction, it's probably time to pack it up.
I appreciate the advice, but I've heard this a lot, and my impression is that while watching steamers can be entertaining, as an educational tool, it's overrated, and at best has diminishing returns. Very few of the steamers are good teachers. I rarely hear them convey their thinking behind a play, or generalize it into any practical, repeatable strategy. Trump is probably the best at this but most of his videos don't go beyond introductory material. Great for beginners, but for sometime like me whose trying to find that 10% improvement, just frustrating.
That's why you have to find the right streamers. The most popular ones aren't always the best ones to watch for your purpose. If you're not learning from a streamer then find a different one. Don't give up. Once you do learn what you need to learn you will get a lot more enjoyment out of the game.
Excellent question. I suppose I simply want to priove to myself that I can master a game like this, and take the confidence that instills into other aspects of my life. Legend is the standard benchmark of that achievement.
Also, youtube is another great resource as streamer highlights are usually more packed with commentary than their stream usually is. Videos like this are pretty good:
I've made legend as a free to play player (okay, I bought Khadgar and Magni, but you know what I mean). It may be that you are not a good enough player to make legend right now. It doesn't mean that you will never be a good enough player to make legend. But right now, you are not good enough to make legend with the amount of time available to you.
I made rank 5 a few seasons at first. Then I made rank 1 like two or three seasons before I finally made legend. I've been playing since open beta. To be honest, hearing you say that you've only made 12 wins twice in your life in arena, with only 4.2 wins/run recents stats lets me know that you probably need more practice. I say this not to judge you, but to let you know that I'm BARELY a legend level player, and I average about 5 wins/run in the last 2 or 3 expansions.
My advice is that you need to focus on getting better, not focus on getting legend. I think that's how I got stuck in those two or three seasons at rank 1. When I finally conceded that maybe I was not yet a legend level player, and I focused on improving, I was able to do it. Try to get better at the game in general; If you average more than 3 wins, arena is worth it. Grind arena. Then, when you are ready to try for legend, I would not play arena that month. Just pick a deck, a tier 1 deck, and keep playing that deck the whole month with all your free time. I would also choose a deck where someone on hearthpwn has written an in-depth guide. Not just a mulligan, but also the philosophy behind the deck, and how to beat bad match-ups.
If you made it to rank 4 you are good enough to reach legend, its now even better chance with the rank floor system!
I started playing since open beta, only after 1 year playing casually I started climbing ladder and it took me another year to reach legend for the first time. You need a good momentum, the right deck and most importantly the right attitude, try not getting tilted when you lose, take a break and don't make make it a goal which gonna stress you out, as long as you making progress getting closer each time is most important.
I think u should chil out and try something new. If you are getting no fun from th game, why da faq you are still playing it. Have a break, try out some different games, if you like card games - try Eternal. I was like you a while ago, and now im having fun playing eternal, waiting for Un'goro patch with a bit of hope.
Im a teacher and i play hearthstone. As a teacher I know that it doesn't matter how much you try but if you dont learn, you will not improve even if you try millions of time, You can repeat the same thing millions of time but still stay on the same spot.
For the first six months of playing hearthstone, i sucked terribly, highiest rank was 9 and arena was a waste of gold. After that, i figured i need to understand arena much better. I googled a lot about arena runs, whats good and whats bad, the correct decisions in certain situations after a few weeks i average at around 6 wins and have snagged a couple of 12 wins in arena. My ave rank was 4 before i quit. Mainly coz, i played pokemon tcgo (nostalgia beats coolness)
For about a year i quit hearthstone. I returned because of theu un'goro trailer. have been playing for a couple of weeks and now I'm rank 9. Will plan to hit legend by the time ungoro releases.
Its hard to win with a single deck for a long time because meta changes and people tech, the secret to climb the ladder is to tech the meta. Meta can change as fast as 12 hours so you always need to keep your list updated. For example, pirate warrior is good last week but not so this week because people tech. I play renolock and i play the 1 mana healer, the 1/3 taunt void, dirty rat and all warlock aoe to tech against aggro. If control becomes more popular I will tech to play combolock instead. A good sample size of 5 i think is enough in order to know the meta and tech for it.
That in my observation is how most people reach legend
I appreciate the advice, but I've heard this a lot, and my impression is that while watching steamers can be entertaining, as an educational tool, it's overrated, and at best has diminishing returns. Very few of the steamers are good teachers. I rarely hear them convey their thinking behind a play, or generalize it into any practical, repeatable strategy. Trump is probably the best at this but most of his videos don't go beyond introductory material. Great for beginners, but for someone like me whose trying to find that 10% improvement, just frustrating.
You're right in a way. At the high level of playing (5-legend), the most improvement you can make (assuming you already have a firm grasp on intermediate strategy) are situational plays, small nuances, tech choices, heavily analyzing your opponent's hand, planning several turns ahead, maintaining a level head/managing tilt etc. For those to improve you'd have to watch a lot of different streamers for some time since situational knowledge can rarely be conveyed with one youtube video or one match or by one individual streamer.
I highly recommend stancifka and strifecro as both of them spend the majority of their time explaining plays and answering chat questions.
If you wanna reach legend , the most important thing is time not skill. You have to be rank 5 before 15th of the month. Then you will have enough time to legend.
I'm trying to decide whether to stick with Hearthstone, and try to get to legend, or just quit entirely. To that end, I would like to know whether there are many of you with a similar experience to mine.
I started playing in March 2015. I'm more or less a F2P player, though I occasionally spend a little. I can't justify dropping hundreds of dollars on this game as some might. Nonetheless I've amassed a decent collection by grinding for adventurers and packs by completing quests and running the arena.
Several times now, I've gotten to rank 5 on the standard ladder. My highest rank is 4, which I've reached 3 times. Always, by the time I get to rank 5, there is not enough time left in the season to think about getting to legend. My progress is simply too slow, and I have a job and a life to manage that preclude spending all my time on the game.
Climbing the ladder is always a long, grinding struggle. I might have some modest luck and spring up a few ranks quickly, only immediately to become caught in a spiral of losing that destroys most of my progress. This season, that experience has only differed at all due to the new floors established at ranks 15 and 10. My choice of deck seems to make little difference. I've tried jade shaman, jade druid, dragon priest, dragon warrior, tempo mage, discardlock, all with pretty much the same result. This season, I was desperate enough to try pirate warrior, and,, after some initial success, I found that while the pace of the climb and decent is faster, the end result is no different. I've switched to jade druid, and I've been stuck at rank 9 for a week, slowly going nowhere. I can play for hours only to lose as many stars as I gain.
My experience in arena is comparable. Out of hundreds of runs, I've gotten to 12 wins only twice. My lifetime average wins, since I've been tracking my stats, is 3.6 per run, although over the past six months it's more like 4.2. Any sense of improvement is fleeting. The payoffs for my average run make me question whether it was worth risking the 150g entry fee.
Bottom line: I'm getting no satisfaction out of the game. I feel like I'm not making progress toward legend. I'm not increasing my wins in arena anymore. I feel like I'm stagnating, and my play isn't improving. With 2 years invested already, is it realistic to think that I can still improve and achieve more, or should I just give up?
stop playing ladder, try fun decks in casual. If you find joy in the game again, then keep playing, if not, then quit. A lot of use who have been around for a few years have gone through what you are going through now. I generally only play fun/wacky decks on ladder purely for working towards golden portraits. Rank 5 rewards would be great, but I don't care enough about it to grind it out against shamans 24/7 since Karazhan to be all that concerned.
WATCH PROS. Watching streamers and pros at tournaments make your plays SO much more thought out and better.
Only 0.5 percent of the player can reach Legend, just saying. This game has several million players but only few thousand can reach Legend each month. Having said that, I think you should play 1 deck , to really expertise it, understand it inside out so you can make the right decisions when it matter. The small improvement is the different between a rank 5 and a Legend player. I suggest a good control deck, because aggro and midrange in general are more draw dependent and less comeback mechanics. We should wait for the next expansion next month, everything fresh, no more cancer Shaman and renodeck and hopefully lots of good control mechanics to combat aggro and jade.
I was stuck at rank 8 trying to make c'thun druid and discardlock viable. Im trying to get to rank 5 but i dont want to use pirate warrior or shaman. Last season i reached rank 7 with c'thun druid but i want rank 5. It is very hard so now im just playing for fun rn at rank 9.
Maybe, just maybe, you are not good enough player to reach legend. Think about it.
--Alfi--
Based on the information you have provided it sounds like you still have a decent amount of room to improve. Instead of focusing on your end goal (legend) you should focus on improving your winrate. The easiest way to do that is to watch streamers and pros play and analyze each and every difference between how they play and how you play. Even if you think that you play almost exactly like them, just remember that one play out of 10 games, just one play in 10 whole games, that caused them to win and you to lose is the difference between a 65% winrate (easy legend) and a 55% winrate (going almost nowhere). Here's a fun little chart that shows just how big of a difference a small increase in winrate can have:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/2gkz9n/data_on_how_many_games_it_should_take_to_get_to/
Firebat and Dog are pretty good streamers to watch. I feel like they do a good job of explaining why they do things.
First of all your either f2p or not, no Mabey or sort of about it. Second reaching legend is not even as great an accomplishment as it seems. Anyone can aggro deck grind to legend. Just keep playing to have fun.
I appreciate the advice, but I've heard this a lot, and my impression is that while watching steamers can be entertaining, as an educational tool, it's overrated, and at best has diminishing returns. Very few of the steamers are good teachers. I rarely hear them convey their thinking behind a play, or generalize it into any practical, repeatable strategy. Trump is probably the best at this but most of his videos don't go beyond introductory material. Great for beginners, but for someone like me whose trying to find that 10% improvement, just frustrating.
I can't speak to Legend, because I've only ever make it to Rank 5 and then simply run out of motivation to climb any higher. From my little experience and listening to others, it is mostly a serious grind.
As for the Arena, progress is always possible ... you just have to [over]analyze everything. There's a lot of luck in the Arena, but there's also an immense amount of skill in gauging tempo, reading your opponents plays/hand, understanding your deck's win condition, and knowing when to go face vs trade. Watching top streamers and analyzing their play can help with all of those skills.
Also concerning Arena, I recommend using a 2nd account. It's fairly easy to keep up with quests, and since you won't care about packs/cards on that account, every gain can be cycled back into the Arena.
Ultimately, though, if you're really getting no satisfaction out of the game, and if improving your play won't result in more satisfaction, it's probably time to pack it up.
"Nerf Paper," said Rock.
Also, youtube is another great resource as streamer highlights are usually more packed with commentary than their stream usually is. Videos like this are pretty good:
https://youtu.be/C7oajrBEXJw
I've made legend as a free to play player (okay, I bought Khadgar and Magni, but you know what I mean). It may be that you are not a good enough player to make legend right now. It doesn't mean that you will never be a good enough player to make legend. But right now, you are not good enough to make legend with the amount of time available to you.
I made rank 5 a few seasons at first. Then I made rank 1 like two or three seasons before I finally made legend. I've been playing since open beta. To be honest, hearing you say that you've only made 12 wins twice in your life in arena, with only 4.2 wins/run recents stats lets me know that you probably need more practice. I say this not to judge you, but to let you know that I'm BARELY a legend level player, and I average about 5 wins/run in the last 2 or 3 expansions.
My advice is that you need to focus on getting better, not focus on getting legend. I think that's how I got stuck in those two or three seasons at rank 1. When I finally conceded that maybe I was not yet a legend level player, and I focused on improving, I was able to do it. Try to get better at the game in general; If you average more than 3 wins, arena is worth it. Grind arena. Then, when you are ready to try for legend, I would not play arena that month. Just pick a deck, a tier 1 deck, and keep playing that deck the whole month with all your free time. I would also choose a deck where someone on hearthpwn has written an in-depth guide. Not just a mulligan, but also the philosophy behind the deck, and how to beat bad match-ups.
Hope that helps, and best of luck!
If you made it to rank 4 you are good enough to reach legend, its now even better chance with the rank floor system!
I started playing since open beta, only after 1 year playing casually I started climbing ladder and it took me another year to reach legend for the first time. You need a good momentum, the right deck and most importantly the right attitude, try not getting tilted when you lose, take a break and don't make make it a goal which gonna stress you out, as long as you making progress getting closer each time is most important.
I think u should chil out and try something new. If you are getting no fun from th game, why da faq you are still playing it. Have a break, try out some different games, if you like card games - try Eternal. I was like you a while ago, and now im having fun playing eternal, waiting for Un'goro patch with a bit of hope.
Im a teacher and i play hearthstone. As a teacher I know that it doesn't matter how much you try but if you dont learn, you will not improve even if you try millions of time, You can repeat the same thing millions of time but still stay on the same spot.
For the first six months of playing hearthstone, i sucked terribly, highiest rank was 9 and arena was a waste of gold. After that, i figured i need to understand arena much better. I googled a lot about arena runs, whats good and whats bad, the correct decisions in certain situations after a few weeks i average at around 6 wins and have snagged a couple of 12 wins in arena. My ave rank was 4 before i quit. Mainly coz, i played pokemon tcgo (nostalgia beats coolness)
For about a year i quit hearthstone. I returned because of theu un'goro trailer. have been playing for a couple of weeks and now I'm rank 9. Will plan to hit legend by the time ungoro releases.
Its hard to win with a single deck for a long time because meta changes and people tech, the secret to climb the ladder is to tech the meta. Meta can change as fast as 12 hours so you always need to keep your list updated. For example, pirate warrior is good last week but not so this week because people tech. I play renolock and i play the 1 mana healer, the 1/3 taunt void, dirty rat and all warlock aoe to tech against aggro. If control becomes more popular I will tech to play combolock instead. A good sample size of 5 i think is enough in order to know the meta and tech for it.
That in my observation is how most people reach legend
If you wanna reach legend , the most important thing is time not skill. You have to be rank 5 before 15th of the month. Then you will have enough time to legend.